Orland Knights Cash doanatins to purchase doanated food?? Orland park, Illinois

Good grief!  This is KIDS football and cheer; not collegiate or even high school play or cheer … “an organization of our caliber” … “annual end-of-the-year banquet at Silver Lakes Country Club” … “generous gift (for) their family” … “gift their child received at (the country club) banquet”.   Again, these are KIDS.  What about an end of year party with pizza and pop in a park district building with no family or player gift?  If the park district building isn’t big enough, I’m sure there’s another location more economical than the Silver Lakes Country Club.

Perhaps you don’t hear parents complain because the parents you interact with can afford the streaming fees or they are too uncomfortable to state their concern with the streaming fees for their kid’s sport.  Who wants to tell their son or daughter that they can’t participate because the parents can’t afford it?

In addition to the streaming fees, it’s unclear if the sponsors, and there’s a lot of them, provide monetary and / or material support or how all of those sponsors benefit the team.  Regardless, there’s a lot flowing into the Orland Knights organization.

The Jackie Robinson baseball team, an extremely high caliber sports team, was able to succeed on less monetary input while setting a great example and high bar for other kid’s sports teams such as the Orland Knights.

It’s the parents, and not the kids, that are out of control with kids sports and Orland Knights are leading the division.

Please do not believe anything the Organization tries to rebutt with.  You must realize that this organization is ran by "soccer moms" that usually don't work and either live off there husbands achievements or there family name. Means nothing other than they will say whatever to get you to believe their lies.  Have another glass o wine ladies!

The Orland Knights is a family-focused organization that promotes the sports of football and cheerleading in Orland Park.  In 2012, two of our teams reached the pinnacle of youth sports:  winning the title of champion.  Our Pee Wee football team won their Super Bowl and our Widget cheer squad placed first at their State Competition. We run a quality program.

Our registration fee is $200.  There are many operational costs associated with running an organization of our caliber.  Some of those costs include: practice and game field rental fees, competition fees and reconditioning and purchasing new equipment so our children are safe.   Our fees are comparable to football/cheer programs in the surrounding communities.

Yes, we also have a mandatory fundraiser.  If you sell all of your online raffle tickets to friends, family and co-workers, you will receive all of the money you paid for them back.  Since the Knights began selling these tickets three years ago, many families have won prize money ranging from $25 to $250.  This is not a blatant scam as the posted stated.

The Knights is a volunteer organization.  Our coaches and board members are volunteers who dedicate hundreds of hours a year for our children.  Yes, we require all of our families to volunteer at two games.  If a families does not fulfill their volunteer requirement, their deposit check is cashed.  Families have plenty of opportunities for which they can volunteer and fulfill their time.  Never has a family complained to the board about having to volunteer for three hours.

As for the $5 donation that was addressed in the comment, please let me explain.  Several years ago, we required each family to donate a case of soda, water, chips or dessert to be sold at our Homecoming concession tent.  Two years ago, the board decided to simplify the process by having the families donate money instead of food items.  That money is used to purchase items that are sold on Homecoming. Until this year, no one complained about the $5 per family donation because they were grateful for not having to purchase a heavy (and potentially more expensive) item and bring it to our Homecoming Tailgate Party.  In 2012 our sponsors, Chick-fil-A and Oberweis Dairy, generously agreed to donate their product to our children at the party.  At the Homecoming game, the Orland Knights purchased a slice of Barraco's pizza for each football player, cheerleader and coach.  Our children were well fed Homecoming Weekend!

The original poster neglected to mention they did not have to pay for their child to attend our annual end-of-the-year banquet at Silver Lake Country Club.  Nor did they mention the generous gift their family received at the Homecoming game or the gift their child received at banquet.  Nor did they mention the fun their child had at practice, games and competitions.